Doctor of Plant Health Program

Dr. Gary Hein Author

01/29/2015 Added

184 Plays

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Dr. Hein talks about the best reasons to study Plant Health at UNL.

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[00:00:02.081](upbeat music)
[00:00:13.664]There are several great reasons to study
[00:00:15.702]at The University Of Nebraska.
[00:00:17.419]One of them I believe is particularly of interest
[00:00:19.797]to the Doctor of Plant Health Program.
[00:00:22.667]And that deals with the variability that we see across
[00:00:26.176]the state of Nebraska.
[00:00:27.927]Particularly, the environmental variability.
[00:00:30.378]In southeastern Nebraska the elevation
[00:00:32.581]is about 840 feet above sea level.
[00:00:34.871]In western Nebraska we do have areas in the panhandle
[00:00:38.028]that are above a mile high
[00:00:40.564]or over 5,000 feet above sea level.
[00:00:43.657]So that elevation impacts the environmental conditions.
[00:00:46.900]The other major thing that does impact
[00:00:48.787]the environmental conditions is rainfall.
[00:00:51.155]Rainfall in southeastern Nebraska will range
[00:00:53.385]from 30-35 inches a year.
[00:00:55.752]In western Nebraska or particularly western parts
[00:00:58.495]of the panhandle, rainfall, actually annual rainfall
[00:01:01.363]is below 15 inches a year.
[00:01:03.315]So again, tremendous variability.
[00:01:05.267]We might see more variability from southeast Nebraska
[00:01:08.755]to western Nebraska than we will see,
[00:01:10.557]say from eastern Nebraska to the Atlantic coast.
[00:01:13.693]So again, the variability can be very significant.
[00:01:16.626]The end result of this variability of,
[00:01:21.053]of environmental conditions is really the impact
[00:01:24.103]that it will have on plants and how plants grow.
[00:01:27.004]If we look at the changes in elevation
[00:01:29.372]and changes in rainfall across the state
[00:01:32.252]this really feeds into the variability
[00:01:34.246]that we see in Evapotranspiration.
[00:01:36.540]Evapotranspiration is the ability of plants
[00:01:39.099]to take up moisture and utilize moisture.
[00:01:42.273]And so we will see a very tremendous variability
[00:01:45.713]as we go from east to west.
[00:01:48.678]Evapotranspiration demand in the west
[00:01:50.769]is much, much higher than it is in the east.
[00:01:53.446]And this does impact the ability of plants
[00:01:55.931]to withstand stress and really to undergo stress.
[00:02:00.592]So, again very significant factors.
[00:02:03.035]Another significant factor that we see
[00:02:04.795]a great variability across the state
[00:02:06.608]and that's the edaphic factor to the soil factor.
[00:02:08.954]Many of the soils in the east are much deeper,
[00:02:12.463]much richer, will hold much more moisture
[00:02:15.109]than many of the soils, particularly in the sand hills
[00:02:18.074]or even in the west where we often times see
[00:02:20.495]fairly sandy soils that have relatively low amount
[00:02:24.505]of water holding capacity.
[00:02:26.340]If we look across the state, we really can break
[00:02:28.964]the state up into four ecoregions
[00:02:30.969]or four primary ecoregions.
[00:02:32.803]For this east region would be the region
[00:02:35.374]that's associated with the western corn belt.
[00:02:38.350]As we move across the state we get into
[00:02:40.270]the great plains region.
[00:02:41.859]In the central sandhills region and very far west we get
[00:02:45.453]into the high plains ecoregions.
[00:02:48.312]Now if we look at the impact of all of these factors
[00:02:50.605]on how plants grow, we certainly can understand
[00:02:53.858]that as we move across Nebraska,
[00:02:55.991]we will be growing different types of plants,
[00:02:58.242]under different types of conditions.
[00:03:00.108]And this variability will impact how we manage
[00:03:02.423]those plants and how those plants can best be utilized
[00:03:06.426]in an economic system of agriculture.
[00:03:09.519]The variability as we move across the state
[00:03:11.908]can be tremendous.
[00:03:13.209]We do see variability in types of plants but also
[00:03:16.110]in the rotations in which these plants are grown.
[00:03:19.225]Also, as we move across the state,
[00:03:20.782]The University Of Nebraska has different locations,
[00:03:23.150]research and extension center locations,
[00:03:25.444]that do mirror these, some of this variability,
[00:03:27.950]so we want these, they've placed these research
[00:03:31.086]and extension centers in different areas
[00:03:32.823]of the state deliberately to represent the agriculture
[00:03:36.076]that is going on and being conducted across the state.
[00:03:41.047]So again, as we look at the,
[00:03:43.463]how The University of Nebraska
[00:03:46.127]is addressing agriculture across the state,
[00:03:48.569]we see that they're trying to take some
[00:03:51.118]of this variability into account.
[00:03:53.003]As a result of this, that students will be exposed
[00:03:55.851]to a wide range of, of environments
[00:03:59.083]and a lot of these environments will be representative
[00:04:01.291]of numerous areas throughout North America
[00:04:03.659]and really around the globe.
[00:04:05.472]A lot of developing countries are located near areas
[00:04:09.066]where we have arid situations, arid climates.
[00:04:12.362]And in western Nebraska we do have a semi-arid area
[00:04:15.871]where we again learn to utilize crops
[00:04:20.468]that are growing in areas where we have
[00:04:23.796]very high evapotranspiration requirements
[00:04:27.945]but also where they-we are short water as well.
[00:04:32.030]So these are experiences that can be very important
[00:04:35.241]throughout the learning process
[00:04:37.374]and as we are working in the Doctor Plant Health Program.

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Doctor of Plant Health Program

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